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Sea Level

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Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Predictions of sea level change are usually given in terms of the “eustatic level” which can be defined as the mean geodetic level of the sea surface, but the term has to be used with a degree of caution. Firstly, there are many factors influencing local sea levels resulting in a wide geographical variation from a mean value as shown in Fig. 1. While most of the world will show positive increases, areas undergoing uplift resulting from reduction in past ice loading will show decreases of sea level. Secondly, modern measurements of sea level use satellite altimetry which makes it easy to determine an average global change, but this technique has only been available from 1993 (Fig. 2). Previously an average had to be calculated from tide gauge records, but these have a distribution related to well-populated areas, and hence the global average was biased, but nevertheless, making appropriate allowances, such records are very useful for studies of historical changes. Sea level...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and The Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Max Barton

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  1. Max Barton
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Correspondence to Max Barton .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Kanata, Ontario, Canada

    Peter T. Bobrowsky

  2. London, United Kingdom

    Brian Marker

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Barton, M. (2016). Sea Level. In: Bobrowsky, P., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_252-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_252-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12127-7

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